A Crown of Bitter Oranges is a quiet romance with a comfortably romantic hero. Tristan and Malorie have known each other most of their lives. For most of their lives Tristan has been in love with Malorie, but she has never trusted the ease with which he moves through the world. They have an antagonistic friendship that rather sweetly moves to love. Tristan is open and emotional. Malorie is self-contained and distrustful. She needs to open up and he needs recognize his privilege and empathize […]
Makes me want to go to the South of France
Malorie Monsard returns to the south of France, where she grew up, having left on a hike after finishing high school and made enough money in Paris to put herself through business school. Having felt like an outcast while growing up, due to the legacy of her great-grandfather who betrayed resistance members to the Gestapo, and a narcissistic father who would manipulate her, her mother, her sisters and her grandmother, and charm, lie and steal his way until he finally met an unglamourous end in […]
A lot of Goodreads readers liked this a lot more than I did
3.5 stars All Jasmin “Jess” Bianchi has ever wanted to do was make perfumes, like her father. The brain-child behind the massively popular Spoiled Brat, she has achieved great commercial success, but is everyone assumes that what she intended as an ironic comment on the industry is all she’s capable of. When she inherits a small perfume shop in Provence, in the same year she had to bury her father and the little artisanal perfume company she had started was bought up by the powerful […]
Contemporary Romance from an Autobuy Author
This second book in Laura Florand’s La Vie en Roses contemporary romance series was not my favourite, but that in no way changes the fact that I will continue to buy everything she publishes, nor my strong recommendations for her novels. If nothing else, A Wish Upon Jasmine made me go and re-read a large portion of the preceding book Once Upon a Rose and that made me all smiley. Damien Rosier, “the mean one”, is the glue that holds his family’s perfume business together. […]
My What Big Teeth You Have
As mentioned in my other reviews of her books, Laura Florand builds on fairy tales in her works and this one was no exception. Sometimes, I can’t quite tell which story she is referencing, and truth be told it doesn’t matter, but in this case it was Little Red Riding Hood. I know because it is quite explicit and Florand didn’t manage to tone it down as much as she did in other stories. At some point, I am going to have to make a […]
Escapist romance with roses instead of food
Layla “Belle Woods” Dubois has just won a Grammy for her Indie rock album, but is fleeing to the French countryside in a desperate hope that she will find some inspiration, or there won’t be a second album any time soon. She’s “accidentally” drowned her phone in a fountain and is hoping to stay away from press attention and the demands of her producers for long enough that she can write some new songs and rediscover her love of playing. Visiting the house she’s inherited […]